Sex and the City. Not the glossy HBO version, but Sex and the Real City -- specifically, the Bronx. Here in the Eastchester section, along Boston Road where the Oasis sits, and on nearby streets, are some dozen ''hot sheet'' motels. They are so named because they willingly accommodate stays of three or four hours, usually for $30 to $40.

The motels are so plentiful in this neighborhood, a jumbled mix of well-kept two-family brick homes, car dealers, stores and other businesses, that some call it Motel Alley. But their presence angers this stable community, an integrated mix of working-class and middle-class residents, many of them African-American and Caribbean.

And so the construction of yet another motel on Boston Road has prompted unusually strong and sustained opposition. For nearly two years, an alliance of residents, Catholic clergymen, some local businesses and a few elected officials have staged protests and pickets to stop the construction of the new motel, known as the Boston Road Motel. Now two new erotic establishments -- a sex shop and a strip club -- have bolstered the neighborhood's claim that it is being despoiled by city's campaign to improve the quality of life in other areas.

''This is basically a dumping ground for unsavory characters,'' said the Rev. Pat F. Rossi, the pastor at Sts. Philip and James Church, which is in sight of the new motel. The words ''No Motel'' are spelled out in giant letters in the window of the brick church, which is also home to a Catholic grammar school.

The issue of the motel is now in Bronx civil court, where a lawsuit against the developer and the city's Buildings Department, filed by the Northeast Bronx Coalition Opposed to the Motel, is awaiting judgment. The coalition has hinged its lawsuit on a variety of technicalities -- such as whether the motel has sufficient parking -- and says the Buildings Department was wrong to grant a permit. The motel is mostly built, but opponents hope to prevent it from getting a certificate of occupancy.

The sex businesses, which have been picketed since they opened, may also be in court soon: They are 380 feet apart on Provost Avenue, which puts them in violation of the city's zoning ordinance banning sex businesses within 500 feet of one another. The courts will probably have to decide which one must close or change the bulk of its business to non-erotic activities. The Love Shack, an X-rated video and book store advertising a dungeon and fetish room, opened first, in April. But the city says that Junior's Restaurant and Cabaret, which opened last Thursday and features strippers, had permission to operate as an erotic business first.

Coalition leaders say that one business closing or changing will do little to appease them. ''We don't see one as the lesser of two evils -- we don't want either of these,'' said the Rev. Richard Gorman, who works for Catholic Charities and is the chairman of Community Board 12.

''A pox on both their houses,'' he said.

If the neighborhood sees itself as a victim, some of the businessmen involved feel equally beleaguered.

''It has cost my client a fortune fighting this,'' said Jerome Goldman, the lawyer for George Kambouris, the developer of the new motel. Mr. Goldman said that political and community leaders had said over a year ago that they would propose an alternative use for the site.

''I never heard from them,'' Mr. Goldman said.

The coalition has also pointed fingers at Gus Paxos, the owner of the Paradise Motel and the Royal Coach Diner, both on Boston Road. Mr. Paxos sold Mr. Kambouris the land for the new motel for $1 million, but the coalition believes that Mr. Paxos is the real developer. They have organized repeated picketing outside the diner, which Mr. Paxos has owned for 18 years.

Mr. Paxos would not comment, other than to say of the motel, ''I have nothing to do with that project.'' His lawyer, Donald Lefari, said Mr. Paxos and Mr. Kambouris had no relationship, and that he had given Father Gorman and various elected officials detailed records proving the legitimacy of the transaction.

Mr. Kambouris has said the motel will serve business travelers and tourists. The opponents scoff at that notion.

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''I've been here 17 years, and I can tell you this is not exactly a tourist and travel area,'' Father Rossi said.

The motels' opponents say the existing motels are magnets for drugs and prostitution, which are thick along Boston Road, according to Father Rossi. ''I was approached myself a few weeks ago,'' he said, referring to a prostitute, and said that he has buried a number of young people killed in drug-related shootings. The area's proximity to the Westchester border increases the traffic of illicit activity, residents and the police say.

But Deputy Inspector Kevin Clark, the captain of the 47th police precinct, said that the last time he studied the issue, there were an average of only two crimes -- most of them minor -- at each motel in his precinct during a 12-month period.

''There is the perception that these hotels bring undesirables in the area, but of course there's no tangible proof to back that up,'' he said. ''I wouldn't doubt that prostitutes use the location with johns, and there's probably other criminal activity behind closed doors, but it just has not come to our attention.''

At some level, the battle is about the proximity of illicit sexual activity to churches, schools and homes. But the priests and the coalition have framed their battle around the quality of life, not moral judgments. ''We have a very active clergy, but we're not a bunch of ayatollahs,'' Father Gorman said.

Over the years, he pointed out, the city has also used the motels to house the homeless. The neighbors say the homeless, too, fray the neighborhood, in part because they sometimes revert to drugs or prostitution.

The city says it has drastically reduced the number of families housed in motels, as well as their length of stay. Today it has about 250 homeless families placed in the Bronx, at five hotels or motels. Three are in Community District 12, which includes Eastchester, Wakefield and Williamsbridge. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeless Services said it has no plans to put homeless people in the new motel.

But Father Gorman and other members of the coalition said the city had to do more to protect the neighborhood's way of life, and some suggested that race may be one reason the city has not done so.

At one point, some 15 years ago, the city wanted to designate the neighborhood a poverty area, Father Gorman said. ''That was racial profiling of the worst kind,'' he said. ''They assumed because we had a large population of people of color we had to be poor. We resented that, we resisted that, we beat them on that.''

He called the neighborhood a ''gorgeous mosaic in miniature,'' one in which working-class families were becoming homeowners and home values were rising.

''There are so many who have invested here for years, and they want to protect their equity,'' he said. ''The middle-class deserves justice too.''

Just how the neighborhood got saturated with motels is somewhat fuzzy, but the broad outlines go like this: it has long had a long-distance thoroughfare running through it, first the old Boston Post Road and then the New England Thruway. Lloyd Ultan, the borough historian, said he believed the first motels sprang up to serve truckers and other long-distance drivers needing rest, and perhaps companionship, in the 1960's, at a time when mores were relaxing. Some motels also came with Freedomland, the amusement park that in the early 1960's sat where Co-op City is now.

But several of the motels were built more recently. The Friendly Motor Inn on Gunhill Road opened just a few years ago, and the Paradise, which has a plaque inside dedicating the building to Mr. Paxos' father, opened in 1990.

Placing a dozen motels in an industrial and residential area certainly seems like a questionable business decision. But by the cluster theory of commerce, a business can actually do better by being near other businesses like it.

''All of these proposed businesses demonstrate that there needs to be a rezoning of this community,'' said Jerry H. Goldfeder, the lawyer representing the coalition in its suit against the new motel. ''People feel they can dump these kinds of unsavory businesses in a working-class neighborhood believing they don't have the political clout to stop it.''